New Infrared Tech Sends Big Files at Near-Instant Speeds

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As anyone who's tried to share a video file knows, it can take
minutes to hours to transfer gigabit-size files over Wi-Fi or
even using USB cables. Now, one group of scientists wants to
reduce those transfer times to seconds, by sending data in the
same way TV remote controls communicate with TVs.

The researchers have developed an infrared data transfer system
that works at a speed of 1 gigabit per second. Like TV remotes,
the tech doesn't require wires, but it does need a clear space
between the two devices sharing the data. The system could
wirelessly load a file from a video camera into a laptop, for
example, or send a video saved on a computer to a tablet.

The new tech's speed is on par with Google's
Fiber project, and is more than 100 times faster than the
average household Internet speed in the U.S. It's six times
faster than plugging a USB 2.0 cable between two devices to share
a file.

"Our current infrared module has already demonstrated that
infrared technology is able to go far beyond established
standards," Frank Deicke, a light-wave researcher at the
Fraunhofer Institute in Germany who is leading the research on
infrared data transfer technology, said
in a statement.

Deicke and his team built both software and hardware to get to 1
Gbps wireless speeds. They developed a small transceiver that
sends and receives infrared laser light, or focused light waves
with wavelengths just longer than red light. They also wrote
computer programs that correct for the distortions infrared waves
undergo as they move through the air.

Deicke is working now to make infrared wireless even faster. He
has shown that theoretically, his tech is able to work at 3 Gbps.
His ultimate goal is 10 Gbps, he said.

The major hurdle Deicke and his team will have to clear, however,
isn't a technological one, Fraunhofer said. Before people's
laptops and cameras will be able to zip data to one another over
infrared waves, researchers will need to convince manufacturers
to put Deicke's tech into their devices.